동경기행과 만주기행을 통한 이태준의 시선과 인식 변화 연구- 이태준의 『무서록』(1941)을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper analyzed Lee Tae-Jun's Mu-Seo-Rok (Miscellaneous Essay, 1941) containing travel pieces in Manchuria (1940) and articles published before 1939 containing the records of Lee's travel in Tokyo of Japan (1936). Especially, this analysis focused on the thematic change of Lee's writing shifted the Orient in modern civilization to the tradition of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), and it assumed that Lee's writing had been influenced by Japan's Orientalism around 1936, and then he raised a question in its Orientalism around 1940. Lee's writing around 1936 including the records of his travel in Tokyo showed not only an inferiority complex formed by comparing the modernization of Japan and Korea, but also how he sublimated the complex into the Orient's spirit. Lee thought that the Orient had infinite and creative spirit, but the West had destructive and material civilization. In addition, he gazed Korea as a part of the Orient, and his cognition like that was internalizing Japan's Orientalism that only Japan of superior civilization could protect the Orient from the attack of the West. Lee had unconsciously regarded Korean people as Japanese national or as the Orientals under the Japan's Orientalism, which was actually the ideology of colonial civilization. However, he became realized Korean tradition and language with the uniqueness not the universality, before and after traveled in Manchuria (1940). Lee who was internalizing Japan's Orientalism began the travels in Manchuria with a longing for Asian continent, but he found the duplicity of Japan's Orientalism that carried out aggression and destruction to conquer the Asian continent under the guise of protecting the Orient, through watching the desperate lives of Korean immigrants to settle down Manchuria against Chinese. The immigration into Manchuria was a means for the conquest of Asian continent and the national policy of Japan. Lee realized the colonial civilization of Japan through the travel in Manchuria and denied his thought and writing internalizing Japan's Orientalism because the Orient under the dicourse was Japan's Orient not Korea's. After all, Lee broke off his pen after 1942 even though he was forced to write the admiration of Great War by Japan. Lee's Mu-Seo-Rok was an important work which showed not only the thematic change of Lee's writing, but also his shifted perception of Japan's Orientalism.